radBTC - tokenized Bitcoin settlement rail

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We are building the first legally-enforceable, proof-of-reserves Bitcoin asset where issuance and redemption rules are enforced at protocol level rather than by a bridge contract.

We are inviting a small number of regulated custodians to become founding federation members, earning ongoing minting, redemption, and custody fees with sharded risk and full liability insulation.

The Product

radBTC: A regulated, proof-of-reserves Bitcoin instrument

  • Fully backed 1:1 by BTC

  • External custody by regulated entities

  • Asset-level issuance and redemption rules

  • Non-upgradeable monetary behavior

  • Public proof-of-reserves

I will add more details below :backhand_index_pointing_down: please read so you can fully understand the product and why Radix is essential for it (rather than say Ethereum or Solana).

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AI generated to save time, but this makes sense to me. What do you all think? :thinking:

PART 1 — Stress-testing this strategy against real institutional objections

These are the exact objections Coinbase, Fidelity, Anchorage, or a regulator will raise — and how Radix actually wins each one.

Objection 1:

“Why not just do this on Ethereum where all the users already are?”

Their real concern:
Liquidity + distribution.

Your answer:

“Because Ethereum cannot enforce reserve backing, redemption rights, or mint constraints at the asset layer.
Everything there is an upgradeable contract with admin keys and governance risk.
That makes your product legally weaker and technically riskier than what you already run today.”

The killer line:

“Radix lets you issue a Bitcoin instrument whose financial behavior is non-bypassable law, not a smart contract promise.”

Institutions care more about:

  • risk surface

  • liability

  • auditability

…than about current users.

Objection 2:

“This sounds like a bridge with better marketing.”

Your answer:

“Bridges custody funds inside contracts controlled by multisigs.
In our model, custody is external, insured, and legally accountable.
Radix never touches the BTC. It only enforces issuance and redemption rules.”

The killer distinction:

Bridges radBTC
Smart contract holds BTC Regulated custodians hold BTC
Admin keys can drain Asset rules prevent inflation
IOU token Legally backed financial instrument
No liability clarity Custodians bear fiduciary duty

Objection 3:

“What happens if Radix governance breaks or forks?”

Their fear:
Protocol risk contaminates reserves.

Your answer:

“BTC custody is legally and cryptographically isolated from Radix governance.
If Radix halts or forks, minting freezes — but reserves remain intact and redeemable.”

This is huge.

It means:

  • No slashing risk

  • No validator capture risk

  • No governance rug risk

Objection 4:

“What if this doesn’t get adoption? Why waste time on a ghost chain?”

Your answer:

“You’re not joining a retail chain.
You’re co-creating a new asset class with first-mover economics and long-term option value.”

Then show:

Today With radBTC
You custody BTC You mint a tokenized BTC rail
You earn custody fees You earn custody + mint + redemption fees
You compete with bridges You replace bridges
You hold full liability You shard liability

This reframes it from ‘growth gamble’ to ‘low-risk product R&D’.

Objection 5:

“Regulators will hate this.”

Your answer:

“This is the most regulator-friendly crypto product ever proposed.”

Because:

  • Fully reserved

  • Auditable

  • No fractional minting

  • Clear redemption rights

  • Named fiduciaries

  • No DAO custody

  • No anonymous governance control

It looks like:

  • a clearinghouse

  • a custody network

  • a tokenized settlement rail

Not DeFi.

Objection 6:

“Why should we trust Radix will stick around?”

Your answer:

“Because the asset rules are permanent and non-upgradeable.
Even if Radix Foundation disappeared, the rules governing radBTC cannot be changed.”

Institutions care about immutability, not vibes.

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I fed the obvious skepticisms into the AI and the results are clear. Adam has been saying this all along and he is right. The focus needs to be on institutional grade products that can’t be built on other chains. This is how Radix can compete and win.

Institutions do not care if a chain is a ghost town.
They care if it gives them a product they cannot build anywhere else that makes money with lower risk.

Radix does that. Let me show you exactly how.

1. Institutions don’t think in “ecosystems.” They think in products.

You’re thinking like a crypto native:

“Why would anyone go to an empty chain?”

They think like operators:

“Can I launch a new financial product that:

  • earns fees

  • reduces my legal risk

  • differentiates me from competitors

  • doesn’t cannibalize my existing business?”

Radix is not a chain to them.
Radix is a product factory.

2. The killer product: assets that legally and cryptographically enforce rules

There is no other chain where an asset itself can:

  • Block unauthorized minting

  • Enforce redemption rights

  • Prevent admin drains

  • Encode compliance rules

  • Hard-cap supply to reserves

On Ethereum / Solana:

Everything is a promise in a contract
Every asset is a legal and technical liability nightmare.

On Radix:

Everything is a non-bypassable rule at protocol level.

This matters more than users.

3. What institutions actually want from Radix

Here are the real motivations, in their own language.

A) A new revenue line with near-zero competition

Example: Coinbase Custody joins radBTC federation.

They instantly get:

  • Minting fees

  • Redemption fees

  • Custody fees

  • Brand halo as “Founding Issuer of radBTC”

They don’t need users on Radix today.
They are positioning for tokenized BTC rails that will exist anyway.

Radix gives them first-mover monopoly economics.

B) A product they can legally sell

They cannot safely sell:

  • Wrapped BTC

  • DAO-issued stablecoins

  • Bridge tokens

  • Algorithmic assets

They can sell:

“A regulated, proof-of-reserves Bitcoin instrument with enforceable redemption rights.”

Radix is the only place this can be made true at the asset layer.

This unlocks:

  • ETFs

  • Structured products

  • Custody mandates

  • Prime brokerage flows

No ghost town matters if the asset is legally clean.

C) Lower existential risk than what they already do

Today, if BitGo runs a bridge:

  • They hold all the keys

  • They take full liability

  • They are a $2B honeypot

  • They get blamed for everything

In a federation model on Radix:

  • They only hold a shard

  • They have no unilateral power

  • They are provably non-fractional

  • Liability is scoped and insurable

This is less risky than their current business.

4. The “ghost town” misunderstanding

You’re assuming institutions need:

Users → TVL → volume → fees

They don’t.

They need:

Product legitimacy → regulatory clarity → long-term positioning → optionality

Radix gives them:

  • A legally defensible product

  • A programmable compliance layer

  • A settlement rail they don’t control (neutral ground)

  • A story regulators won’t laugh at

That alone is enough to justify involvement.

5. The real flywheel (this is the key insight)

It does not start with users.

It starts with assets.

Here’s the actual order:

  1. Institutions issue sovereign assets on Radix

  2. These assets are safer and legally cleaner than anything else

  3. Developers build around the only place those assets exist

  4. Users follow the money

  5. Liquidity deepens

  6. Institutions scale up involvement

You don’t need users to attract institutions.

You need a product no one else can build.

6. Concrete example (non-theoretical)

Imagine this headline:

“Fidelity, Anchorage, and Coinbase launch jointly governed Bitcoin settlement asset on Radix with on-chain proof-of-reserves.”

Instantly:

  • Every fund pays attention

  • Every exchange wants to list radBTC

  • Every DeFi protocol wants integration

  • Every regulator takes a meeting

Radix goes from ghost town to systemically important overnight.

Not because of TVL.

Because of credibility.

7. Why Ethereum can’t steal this later

Institutions care about durability.

On Ethereum:

  • Asset rules can be bypassed

  • Admin keys can be rotated

  • Contracts can be upgraded

  • Bridges can be hacked

  • Governance can be captured

On Radix:

  • Asset behavior is non-upgradeable law

  • Custody is external and insured

  • Mint rules cannot be overridden

That is permanent competitive moat.

Institutions don’t chase hype.
They chase moats.

8. The honest answer

They’re not interested in Radix because it’s popular.

They’re interested because:

Radix lets them mint legally defensible, programmable financial instruments that cannot exist anywhere else — with lower risk than their current business.

That is enough to get meetings.
That is enough to get pilots.
That is enough to get first-mover adoption.

And once the assets exist…

The ghost town fills itself.

One-line takeaway for your council

Institutions don’t come for users.
They come for products they can’t build anywhere else.

Radix is one of the only chains that offers that today.

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What radBTC actually is

radBTC is not “Bitcoin on Radix”.
It is a Radix-native financial asset that represents a legally and cryptographically enforced claim on real BTC.

You are not trusting a bridge.

You are trusting the rules baked into the asset itself.

The 4 layers that make radBTC real

1. Independent Bitcoin Custody Federation

Imagine 7 licensed custodians across jurisdictions.

  • Each holds BTC in real Bitcoin multisig

  • No one can move funds alone

  • All addresses are public

2. Proof-of-Reserves Oracle

A decentralized oracle network constantly verifies:

“Does the federation control X BTC on these addresses?”

If total BTC ≠ radBTC supply → minting freezes automatically.

3. radBTC Asset Rules (Radix superpower)

The radBTC asset itself contains rules like:

Rule What it prevents
Minting only allowed when oracle proves reserves No fractional IOUs
Supply capped to custody BTC No hidden inflation
Redemption burn enforced No rehypothecation
No admin drain methods Custodians can’t steal

These are protocol-level constraints, not smart contract promises.

4. Redemption: You can always leave

User burns 1 radBTC → system releases 1 BTC.

Not:

  • A bridge contract

  • A DAO vote

  • A multisig wallet

But a hard-coded asset rule.

What happens if something breaks?

Scenario Bridges radBTC
Custodian hacked All wrapped BTC dead Minting halts, redemption isolated
Oracle failure Full collapse radBTC freezes, no new risk
Custodian fraud Users lose everything Assets remain provably insolvent, not silently drained

Bridges fail silently.
Sovereign assets fail loudly.

Why Ethereum & Solana can’t do this

They don’t have asset-level logic.

Everything is:

  • Smart contract custody

  • Admin keys

  • Unlimited mint risk

Radix assets can literally say:

“This asset cannot be created unless Bitcoin exists.”

No contract on Ethereum can enforce that.

Why radETH is even more powerful

Ethereum has slashing, MEV, and LST risk.

radETH can embed:

  • Validator diversification limits

  • Slashing insurance

  • Yield routing rules

All inside the asset.

Endgame

When DeFi uses:

  • radBTC

  • radETH

  • radUSD

All with non-bypassable financial laws…

Radix stops hosting copies of assets.

It hosts sovereign financial instruments.

That is how you permanently pull liquidity out of every other chain.

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No idea on what the hurdles would be to build this, so can’t have a real formed opinion on how feasible it might be.

One thing I can’t grasp form it, though: if Radix is only going to be used as an execution layer for other chain’s assets under custodial holding … where’s the value for Radix itself?
What’s the value to XRD? ‘cause it only plays the fees-token role, it seems.
And, most importantly, where is the value for those other chains holders if it only pertains to multisig custodial assets and not generally applicable?

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same shit is doing Josh on natively

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Radix isn’t trying to host other chains’ assets.
It’s trying to become the protocol where the rules of money itself are enforced at asset level.

That lets institutions issue legally defensible financial instruments they cannot build on Ethereum or Solana.

XRD captures value not just through gas, but through staking, governance, issuance bonding, and protocol revenue from sovereign assets.

For BTC and ETH holders, radBTC is strictly safer than wrapped assets and unlocks DeFi without bridge insolvency risk.

This isn’t a multisig bridge — it’s a new asset class.
The execution risk is real, but the upside is Radix becoming financial infrastructure instead of another L1.

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As far as real execution goes: You need oracles and you need institutional interest/pilots. That is realistically a 1 year process or longer to properly establish. However, This strategy does not try to win with hype or TVL.

It tries to win by:

  • Making Radix the only chain that can issue sovereign financial assets

  • Turning XRD into a revenue-bearing coordination and security token

  • Offering institutions a safer, legally defensible product

  • Offering BTC/ETH holders a strictly superior asset

  • Creating long-term structural demand instead of mercenary liquidity

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